Now, Abraham in email probe

FOUR Oaks Ward councillor Roland Abraham is embroiled in a second major controversy, only months after he successfully contested allegations he provided false and misleading information.
City of Casey Council last Tuesday night authorised investigations into emails received and sent from Cr Abraham’s Casey email account on 17 June.
The investigation relates to concerns that details contained in an email sent from a Ballarat University staff member to Cr Abraham were altered before being presented to Casey chief executive Mike Tyler.
This was after his colleagues rejected council funding of a university course Cr Abraham is currently undertaking through the university.
As a result of the query on the authenticity of the email Cr Abraham submitted to Mr Tyler, the council also resolved to seek legal advice as to whether there had been a breach of any law.
Cr Abraham submitted the email to Mr Tyler in support of his request for reimbursement of his university course which he has publicly indicated he would selffund anyway.
By calling for an investigation into Cr Abraham’s email registry, the council hopes to be able to determine whether the content of the email Cr Abraham received is the same as the content of the email that Mr Tyler holds.
All of this comes only a few months after Cr Abraham successfully fought off allegations he provided false and misleading information to the Victorian Electoral Commission during the 2003 Casey Council elections.
Cr Abraham this week hit out at what he described as a ‘flawed’ council email system, which he says is prone to security breaches.
Asked if he had doctored the email in question, he replied “Absolutely not.”
“We (councillors) have had issues with emails in the past. There’s been an issue of the security of emails in general. My biggest concern is that it was of my belief that the email was a genuine email. Whether I’ve been setup or not, I don’t know.
“But I would never in my lifetime till the day I die do such a thing. Certainly, I’m disappointed that if someone has done this as a joke, it’s quite a serious joke. It just seems quite ironic that coming election time that this is starting to happen. “I don’t know what games are being played here. I think it has come to a point now where things need to come head on.
“I welcome the investigation. It’s got to be done.”
Cr Abraham was adamant he had not knowingly done anything wrong.
“I believe it’s shameful, I believe it’s disgraceful,” he said.
“It’s victimisation in the first degree. To me there are games being played. It’s not at all a coverup by me. If I’ve got something to hide, I wouldn’t be talking about it.
“It’s the same as with the VEC saga that has come and gone. Whatever happens, this is not going to go away. I would like to know what the solutions are going to be in relation to our council’s IT flaws. I don’t have a problem with the investigation. I want to get to the bottom of this.”